


Choking on Smoke

by astrivikia



Series: The Nicest Cage Is Still A Cage [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: All violence is in the nightmare sequence, Branding, Burns, Conflicted Zuko, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Let Zuko Rest, Nightmares, Not Beta Read, Set in an AU of Season 1, Torture, Violence, Watching Someone Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:07:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21669493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrivikia/pseuds/astrivikia
Summary: There is the scent of burning flesh, and the sound of screaming.  And Zuko can't move.
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: The Nicest Cage Is Still A Cage [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1561219
Comments: 11
Kudos: 250





	Choking on Smoke

**Author's Note:**

> This is a part of a series of interconnected "snapshots". I have a post on tumblr with the basic rundown of the idea. Series summary below.
> 
> (Zuko has captured the Avatar. And the Avatar is a child. This complicates matters, but Zuko is pretty sure the Avatar would be in far more danger as the captive of anyone else from the Fire Nation, so he's gonna make this work.)

Everything was dark. He could smell smoke; could hear the crackling of fire.

Zuko breathed out, knowing more than sensing the smoke that swirled around him from the action.

It wasn't that he opened his eyes. He didn't feel quite like he was in possession of a body at all. But the world filtered in. More and more senses building a picture around him.

At first the noises were muted, like they were drifting in from another room. A voice he was sure he knew reached him. Though he couldn't place it, it sent a cold dread spiraling through him.

Something was wrong. He knew it was, he just didn't know why. He didn't have time to truly ponder this.

A scream pierced through the half formed void and everything snapped into startling focus around him like someone had turned on a spotlight. Zuko flinched.

Aang's skin was smoking where the Fire Lord had a grip on his arm, the acrid scent of burning flesh permeating the air.

“So this is the great Avatar?” Gold eyes stared down at the child, uncaring of the way he was struggling. Wind whipped violently around the room, trying to batter away the threat. The attack was unfocused, a desperate response to the danger with no true form behind it. “Pathetic.”

Tears slid down Aang's face, hitched breathing his only audible response. His eyes were narrowed, and he tried to sweep out his leg and use a gust of air to knock the Fire Lord away from him. Chains Zuko didn't recall being there clinked as they stopped the Avatar's movements short.

The Fire Lord only laughed. “There will be none of that.” He released the kid's wrist and turned away.

Zuko caught a brief glimpse of the injury before Aang cradled it close to himself, face screwed up in pain.

Defiance shone in the gray eyes. Zuko didn't know how long that would survive.

He wanted to move, to do _something._

Nothing happened. He was floating somewhere beyond the events playing out.

When the Fire Lord turned back around he was holding something. Something thin, metal, and glowing painfully bright from heat. “You belong to the fire nation now Avatar.” With a precise movement, he burnt away a section of Aang's top. The boy flinched back. Chains rattled.

A brand. He was holding a brand. “And so no one forgets that.” Metal met flesh, and Aang arched with a scream.

Zuko bolted upright in his bed with a strangled cry.

* * *

Zuko doesn't think about where he's walking. He hardly notices the way his candle flares and flickers in time with his quick heartbeat.

His steps scarcely make a sound as he slips through the halls of his ship toward the Avatar's cell. Logically, he knows there will be no change in his state since last he saw him.

But logic doesn't matter right now. He needs to see for himself.

The door makes a quiet click, metal creaking slightly as he steps inside. The Avatar twitches in his sleep but doesn't stir. He's curled around his pillow, hugging the soft material to his chest.

His features are calm, calmer in sleep than Zuko is used to seeing them.

His gaze trails to the kid's wrist. The wrist Zhao grabbed, the one that had been burning in his nightmare.

There's still the hint of a bruise discoloring the skin, but nothing like the raw wound still lingering in his mind's eye.

He lets out a shaky breath. He can leave now. He _should_ leave now.

He doesn't leave.

He leans back against the wall, shutting his eyes for a moment and just breathing. The unsettling images spring readily forth in the darkness behind his eyelids.

A strained growl escapes his throat, and he slides down the wall into a sitting position, resting his head in his hands.

The memory of burning flesh won't leave. His jaw tightens, teeth grinding against each other.

“Stop it.” He doesn't know if it's a threat, a plea, or even if he's talking to himself or the sleeping Avatar.

It doesn't matter, he doesn't get a response.

He lets his gaze focus onto the Avatar, matching his breathing and just trying to let his mind go blank. It's a long time before he falls back to sleep.

* * *

Aang wakes up to a sight he doesn't know what to make of. Hazily coming out of sleep, he takes a moment to process there's another person in the room with him, then a moment longer to convince himself he's actually seeing what he's seeing.

Prince Zuko is asleep on the other side of the bars, slumped against the far wall in what Aang assumes are his night clothes. He's never seen them before.

His head is resting against his knees awkwardly, a position that can't be comfortable. Not that Zuko seems to care in that moment.

The prince looks exhausted. Aang can see bags under his eyes, or well, under the unscarred one anyway. The fleeting idea to wake him up for entertainment value fades.

He looks like he could use the rest. And Aang doesn't really want to get yelled at first thing in the morning.

Still, it doesn't stop him from wondering why Zuko came to his cell in the middle of the night in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> I need to be up for work in like.... 3-4 hours. But I couldn't sleep so this scene got written.


End file.
